I had no time to sketch today, so here is another one from my archives. This one was done in Battambang in Cambodia. I looked on google to see if I could find a Wat Popet, but couldn’t find it, so maybe I got the name wrong?
10-Dec-1993
This is what I get up to if I have a bit more time to sketch…I enjoyed putting in the detail in this one. On the weekend I met for lunch in the old quarter with a friend from my time living in Bhutan. On my way home I passed this little corner of peace and quiet next to the busy Hoan Kiem lake. King Le Thai To is a Vietnamese hero who fought off the Chinese in the north in the 15th Century. Behind the little temple is a stone tablet carved with a poem he wrote (the original of which is somewhere in the mountains). It includes the lines “Sounding gales, clamoring cranes, shake fear amongst the enemy”.
Sun-8-Oct-2017
Our next stop on our China holiday, after a short flight, was Xian, famous for the teracotta warriors. I didn’t sketch the day we visited the warriors as we were exhausted, but the day afterwards we cycled around the city wall and afterwards visited a pagoda where I drew this.
Sat-12-Aug-2017
Here is my last sketch from my visit to the Temple of Literature. This is a much quicker drawing of the entrance tower to the third courtyard. It’s not a very good copy of it though.
Sat-3-June-2017
Here is another drawing from the Temple of Literature. For this one I found a shaded spot in the fourth courtyard – it’s been incredibly hot (as I write this it’s 37℃ but feels like 44…the high today is supposed to be 40!). In the foreground is a small statue of what I think was a lion, but from the angle I was drawing it was difficult to make out.
Sat-3-June-2017
Yesterday I visited the “Temple of Literature“, here in Hanoi. Even though it’s pretty crowded with tourists, there are still quiet spots and a nice atmosphere – plus of course lots to see and to sketch. This drawing is of the massive drum house behind the fifth courtyard.
Sat-3-June-2017
I went for a walk today around the Hoàn Kiếm Lake today – the sun is shining and everyone is out promenading on the pedestrianised streets around the lake. The most enjoyable part of doing this sketch was chatting to some random stranger who wanted to watch me! It was him that told me that people used to take a boat to this little temple to pray and that there used to be a huge turtle in the lake, that recently passed away.
Sun-2-Apr-2017
I snatched a few moments to do this 10 minute drawing while I was visiting a tourist site with colleagues in Hue. There are a lot more iconic parts of the pagoda…this little part just happened to be in front of me when I found a quiet spot to sit.
Thu-30-Mar-2017